Kickstarter Cognition Snare: Hexahedron of the Monks of Flame : The Fouth Part

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As the kickstarter continues so does this room by room dungeon

 The most recent room was here

 

 

ROOM 3

 Most Obvious Thing:

The north , south and west walls have trench of ash in front of them with odd looking bare golden trees emerging out of them.

 There's a 50% chance when the room is entered of it either being of Flame or of Ash. 

If it is of Flame then there's a great cloud of burning gas around the branches and roiling along the ceiling. It burns like a dirty gas flame, mostly blue with ribbons of yellow and the branches of the trees still visible through . 

If it is of Ash , there's no flame cloud, but a cold wind will rise from nowhere, whipping along the surface of the ash trench , making a simulacrum of snow drifting in the snow.

 Details available with further consideration:

The reason the trees are odd looking are they entirely (and artfully) constructed from human bones coated with a valuable amount of gold. They also might be hot enough to cause burns to the touch , depending on how long the flame cloud has been present (see context).

The flame cloud , if present., appears to have purple flames among it to, and these resemble the wings of large butterflies (2 foot wingspan)

The ash wind , however, instead has periodic movement under the ash , like something is swimming in there (which something is).

 Every 5 rounds  the flame cloud dissipates   , and the ash wind starts, which then continues for 5 rounds before the flame cloud bursts into life again.  This will cool down the bone trees so they could be touched without causing damage but then cool them down to the point they will cause damage from being so cold.

This is a ludicrous scenario as far as read world physics is concerned but there is at least 3 sources of bullshit involved , the bones are slightly haunted , belonging to former monks whose remains have deteriorated beyond the state of the ones in room 8, magic is involved in the construction, there's elemental present in both the flame cloud and the ash. 

Assume the trees do 1d6 fire or cold damage to anyone touching them on the 4th or 5th round of the Flame/Ash and d.m call on the possibility for wearing protective gear and getting less damage, or making prolonged contact on rounds 3 (maybe a d4?).

If a branch is broken off from the bone tree , this interferes with the magic that makes it cool down/ heat up and it will stay at its current temperature for 5 minutes. This is just to reward any players who think of breaking off bits of the tree to hit the guardians of this room with them. 

 

Context and details:

 Anyone stepping or falling in the trenches will sink extremely quickly to the bottom of the room through the ash.

The ash trenches are 7 foot deep and continue a "square" (see map) underneath the middle of the room, so if you were to fall into the trench and try and walk along the bottom and climb up when you hit a wall , you would have a ceiling over  your head and be in trouble.

The trees go all the way to the bottom of the room, with 7 feet above the ash and 7 feet concealed.

The room guardians are Flaming Glass-body Butterflies and Razor-boned Skeletal Eels , lesser known Elemental spirits that can be compelled with magic to hang around and attack people messing with an location or object.
Which in this case is the bone trees and the ash trench.

The Butterflies only manifest when the flame cloud is present, and when it dissipates, their wings disappear and they cling to the ceiling and become inert. Their bodies are difficult to see without the wings, and someone would have to be specifically looking at a particular patch of purple fire to notice the lingering visual disturbance of the body clinging the ceiling afterwards. 

 If the bodies are taken outside the room the butterflies can't manifest in them. They valuable as weird trinkets, but more valuable to alchemists or wizards that deal with elementals or summoning.

They attack by swooping down from the cloud and leaving a flaming trail behind them.

There's a total of 8 present. When the flame cloud reappears, any damage done to the butterflies is healed and any defeated ones return to life, unless their body has been removed from the room or destroyed with cold damage (of which they take double damage)

Their ash equivalent  are 5 feet long skeletal eels with delicate looking (but with steel strength) razor sharp ribs that extend out as they dive from one side of the room to another, slicing anything in their path.

Once the ash wind is about to dissipate, they will try to be already in the ash itself when this happens. They will become inert eel skeletons when the flame cloud present. Like the butterflies they will restore any damage or destroyed eel when the wind returns, unless that particular body is destroyed with fire or removed from the room.

Their bodies are valuable in much the same way as the  glass butterfly bodies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kickstarter Cognition Snare: Hexahedron of the Monks of Flame : The Second Part

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So there will be content for you later in the page, first the obligatory and inductionary :

 Our kickstarter approaching its last two weeks and it's been doing great. Next stretch goal is getting more Spells for Bukako!
But we'll get fired from the gig-economy if we don't do at least a modicum of capering and gurning to get further attention and financial redemption . So to make this hopefully tolerable me and Patrick are taking turns doing rooms of a dungeon. Which is

THE HEXAHEDRON OF THE MONKS OF FLAME

(Specifically) 

So if you want to help get the next book published and gets yourself one go here: 

KICKSTARTER LINK

 If you haven't seen Patrick's post introducing the dungeon go here

LINK TO STARTING POST 

Right now onto

Room 11 

Most obvious : 3 Headed half on fire tiger on a raised plinth in between two doors. Flames flickering but no smoke or signs of the Tiger getting more on fire as time passes. Both doors are made from wood.

Walls , floor and ceiling have alternating patches of what looks like soot. Patches are irregular and abruptly edged.

 

Details available with further consideration:

The walls also have simple mural of a procession of people carrying tools , symbols of office, and weapons walking towards the doors .  The sooty patches show a different but similar mural that doesn't line up with sootless mural. With the soot mural , the procession of people instead includes the injured , those carrying broken tools and weapons, pregnant women, and stern looking old people.

 

The burnt areas on the 3 headed tiger look very thoroughly burnt, like charcoal. While the places on it where the fire touches aren't burned at all. No-where on its body does it look partially burned or in the middle of being burnt , such as with skin peeling or bones glistening through. It's either charcoal or an healthy looking tiger that just happens to have fire on it.

All the doors are wood enlayed and edged with brass.

Doors to the North

1: The door on the left has a handle and opens stiffly.

2: The door on the right has a little grotto with a shelf below a brass funnel leading somewhere inside the door. When the complex was functioning correctly a specific smoke would needed to go up the funnel in order to unlock the door, but now any smoke will do.

Door to the East

3:The door to the east looks and acts like Door 1

Context:

This entire complex would be change from one were the Vitality of Flame was contemplated , to one that instead had the Sorrow of Ash as its foci. Not only the foci but also the contents of the rooms and the nature of the guardians and magics too. It would be a Hexahedron of Flame while it was winter to give warmth , hope and dreams of conquest. Then when spring had ended, it would switch to a Hexahedron of Ash, and embody concepts such as preparation , humbleness, detachment, and mortality.  

 

 However the cycle has been disrupted and now both Flame and Ash are trying to manifest at the same time, causing there to be both rooms of Flame and Ash present at the same time, and in a significant amount of rooms even present in the very same room at once.

This room is one of them, causing the tiger guardian to be thrown into paralyzing state of agitation .

 

The three headed tiger known as 3 hungers :

He will take a round or two to notice anyone who enters the room. He will animate and then will demand the doors close themselves and the party tell him what the season is. As the doors were made with the same wood that was burned to give him his spark of life, they will fearfully obey his (or any voice sounding like him) every command.

Whatever answer he is given , he will disagree claiming he can't smell or hear various indicators of the season.  (Such as a birds song, the scent of a flowering tree or rotting dry leaves) He will demand proof of the stated season, but will refuse to let more than one character leave the room if they claim a need to get said evidence. 

If they convince him its Summer or Autumn, he will take his Ash form, where he looks like a 3 headed tiger sculpted from charcoal.

He will then demand to know of what they hope to learn from Ash, and if they give an answer relating to preparation , humbleness, detachment, mortality, grief, loss or rebirth he will let them leave by the northern doors. If they give another answer but can talk about it with enough authority , he will also let through. 

Regardless of their answer or even if they don't answer he will let them leave by east door.

 

 If the convince him its Spring or Winter, he will take his Flame form, where he looks like a 3 headed tiger with an aura of fire.

He will act exactly like he does for Summer / Autumn, but instead will ask what they want to learn from Flame, and expect answers to do with hope ,conquest, passion , conquest, destruction, desire or hunger.

 

He will answer any 3 questions per party about the complex but only if they've answered his questions first.

If the players mock or insult him , he will become even more angry and shortly attack, unless grovelling apologies happen.

If the players say they don't know, he will call them "Damp Bottomed Fools and Pickers of Gnit" and demand they leave via the east door, as they cannot hope to learn anything here. He will tell the door to open and if the players don't leave promptly or manage to explain themselves , he will threaten then attack them.

If the party enter the room for the first time from the Northern Doors , he won't realize (or willingly admit) they have and go about his whole pageantry just the same , and upon him noticing the party. If the party can prove they have been on the other side of these doors (say if their was still a character on the other side of the door when he commands it to shut and is brought to his attention) he will be somewhat apologetic and let them go.

In Combat: 

Treat as a max hit point tiger with 3 bite attacks.

Each head has different effect in addition to damage. If he hasn't turned into his full Flame or full Ash form , each head will flicker erratically from Ash to Flame, roll at the start of every round to determine if a head is in its Flame or Ash form.( Simple way to do this is to roll 3 different coloured d6 , each assigned to a head, on odds that head is Ash, on evens that head is Flame.)

 

3-Hungers is smart enough to apply his attacks strategically , using bites to impair or immobilize the more dangerous opponents,  then move away to concentrate his attacks on the weakest oppenents to try

eliminate them quickly. He will accept abject surrender if accompanied by giving all valuables and weapons to him (normally he would pass these on to the monks, while the complex is unresolved, he'll awkwardly hide them behind himself)

 

if victim suffers the corresponding Flame effect to the Ash effect (or vice-versa) both effects are negated. 3-Hungers will try and avoid this if he can.

All effects last 1d4 rounds but

don't add durations of multiple bites together nor track each one individually, instead set all effects currently active whichever is higher , the roll of the d4 or the rounds currently remaining.

 

 (E.g if character had Air devoured effect with 2 rounds remaining and then received the Raise Temperature effect and the d4 rolled a 4, both effects would now last for 4 more rounds. If the d4 had rolled a 1 , then the remaining duration (2 rounds) would be used for both effects.)

The heads are :

The Devouring of Air : 

Flame form: will devour the air from the lungs of the bitten, making them pass out if they choose to do anything more active than a slow walk this round. They will wake up in 1d4 rounds or sooner if struck or splashed with water

Ash form: fills the eyes and lungs with ash and soot, blinding and choking ,  must make Constitution Check /Saving throw to take any action, will take 1d6 damage on a failure

The Need of Heat:

 Flame form : will raise the temperature of the bitten, as the Heat metal spell and also making them catch fire if very close to even a candle flame.

Ash form: will drain the heat from the bitten, as the Chill Metal spell, and giving them - 2 on all actions to do with acting quickly. 

 

The Voracity to Matter :

Flame form: will eat aware at their very substance inflicting an extra 1d6 damage and cause them to levitate 2 feet vertically per round, effectively weighing as much as helium balloon

Ash form: will become layered in volcanic ash, burning them for an extra 1d6 ,and setting them to the floor (if in contact with it) , only being able to move each round with a successful strength check

If destroyed a great cloud of black smoke will rush out from his body, leaving only an empty 3-headed tiger skin perfectly persevered yet pliable and valuable both as a tiger skin and component for the crafting of magical objects.

Now Patrick , what lies behind either :

door number 1? (room 7) 

or door number 2? (room 8)

Demon Bone Sarcophagus Kickstarter Is Awrithe!

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YEAH IT'S ANOTHER ONE

DEMON BONE SARCOPHAGUS KICKSTARTER

Me and Patrick Stuart have got the old hat out again

the prequel to the sequel to Deep Carbon Observatory! A contained yet layered tomb complex with threads going all the way into books that don't exist yet either.

Here's the link:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gawain/demon-bone-sarcophagus

 

Things we are doing slightly different this time:

-We have a stretch goal (already reached) to get some one to do more than functional layout

-There's an overpriced tier to get a hand painted t-shirt by yours truely

Which might look like this! Woo!

 (you don't have to get a nude snake lady but not sure why you wouldn't)

But yeah if you liked Deep Carbon Observatory but wanted it to be just in one place (and also be part of up coming trilogy) this is a book for you.

Have some more unused art for the book!

We won't be doing the blog post ping pong so you won't be getting constant posts about the kickstarter . We might be doing something to hype it that still creates some """content""" we just don't know what yet. (Any ideas?)